Baldwin’s Ironweed (Vernonia baldwinii) has broad, flat-topped clusters of purple heads. It forms a pleasing contrast to the abundant yellow flowers of the summer months. The plant is a hardy perennial and grows in ditches and river bottoms from Central Texas to Iowa. The stems are 3-4 feet high and conspicuously leafy. The ironweeds get their common name from the fact that the stems are very hard and difficult for farmers to chop down.
About one-fifth of the plants found in Texas belong to the composite family. It is generally divided into groups or tribes, the more important being the ironweed, mist-flower, aster, everlasting, sunflower, bitterweed, dog-fennel, and thistle groups. The composites in this book are grouped together in tribes in the above order, but the tribes are not separated or differentiated. Identification of composites is much easier if the resemblance to a particular group can be noted.
BLUE MIST-FLOWER BLUFF THOROUGHWORT
Bluff Thoroughwort (Eupatorium ageratifolium) is a widely branched shrub of the rocky hillsides of Central and West Texas. The bushes are covered with flat-topped clusters of pale-pink or white flowers. The long, protruding styles, which are divided into two recurved parts, have given the name of mist-flower to this and other plants of the group.
Milk-sick plant (Eupatorium ageratoides) is a closely related plant which causes in cattle a disease called “trembles.” The milk from affected cows will cause sickness and death among humans. The late-flowering thoroughwort (Eupatorium serotinum) is very abundant in river bottoms throughout the state. Yankee-weed (Eupatorium compositifolium) grows in big feathery clumps often 10 feet high. It is a pernicious weed in East Texas and soon covers cut-over pine lands. The dried flower-tops of several species were used by pioneers as fever medicines. One of these plants was called Joe-pye weed in honor of the Indian doctor, Joe Pye.
Blue Mist-Flower (Conoclinium coelestinum) is sometimes called ageratum and is used for a summer and fall border plant. It grows in moist, shaded places from Central Texas to New Jersey.
PRAIRIE BLAZING STAR DWARF GOLDENROD TALL GOLDENROD
Prairie Blazing Star. Button Snakeroot (Laciniaria punctata) is sometimes called liatris from the scientific group to which these plants are sometimes referred. A similar prairie blazing star is called gay-feather. On the dry prairies in the western part of the state the blazing star has short stems and short spikes of flowers; but where moisture is more abundant, the plants are one to two feet high. The plant does well in cultivation and is easily grown from the seed. It ranges from Southern Canada to Texas and New Mexico.